Resident Evil Movies Were On Ice Until Zach Cregger Came Along

On paper, Zach Cregger directing a Resident Evil movie sounds like a smart move. The director has earned critical acclaim for his work on spooky flicks like Barbarian and Weapons, while Resident Evil is experiencing a resurgence thanks to several years of hit games. But that's a pairing that almost never came to be, as after the dismal box office performance of 2021's Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, movie distributor Constantin Films--who own the film rights to Resident Evil-- wanted to give the franchise a chance to rest before greenlighting a new project. That all changed when Cregger approached the company, as Constantin Films CEO Oliver Berben said that he already had ideas in mind for the Resident Evil movie he wanted to make. This was prior to the release of Weapons, as Barbarian had shown that the former member of the comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U Know was a heck of a horror movie director; his follow-up film put him on the Hollywood map as a rising star behind the camera. "Zach Cregger actually approached us, together with Roy Lee (a producer on Cregger's movies). He basically came to us, and asked if this franchise, if this IP, was available," Berben said in an…